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UPDATE: I previously stated that at the end of September of this year, I would be scheduling Skype and/or Google Hangout visits for the 2018-2019 school year. However, due to several pressing deadlines AND the fact that I BROKE MY COMPUTER(!!!), I need to postpone the scheduling. My apologies. I will try to give updates on this as frequently as I can. Definitely check back in later October.

Meanwhile, I’m working on some books that will hopefully make you go “yuk yuk yuk” all the way home. But it’s too soon to tell you what they are. Soon, my lovelies, soon.

If you are interested in booking me for a school visit, unfortunately I am not doing school visits except for those arranged through my publishers for book tours and bookstore events. I’m turning into a hermit, for sure.

I’m hoping you’ll join me on Sunday, April 23rd at 2:00 at BBGB in Richmond, Virginia to celebrate the relaunch of my personal favorite book of all my books—Bee-Wigged!

The return of Jerry Bee!

(BBGB is a wonderful children’s book store and one of the biggest supporters of Jerry Bee from the get-go. I can’t think of a better book store to host this event. And here’s my proposed logo for them…maybe one of these days they’ll take me up on it):

Thanks, School Library Journal, for this really lovely piece about El Deafo and the way it has connected with deaf readers. Huzzah!

The article is possibly a reminder that sharing our personal stories helps spread understanding and empathy. And sharing all the funny stuff in this world is good, too. Gotta have the funny.

Here’s a sampling:

Though the book was beyond Sarah’s reading level, she assiduously “read” it and invented stories to go with the pictures. “She would point to the pictures and say, ‘Just like me!’ The surprise on her face spoke volumes,” says DeBrodt. The speech bubbles in El Deafo are often blank or contain garbled words to convey the protagonist’s hearing experience, which kids like Sarah also connect with.

When Bell came to speak at Sarah’s school and chatted with her while autographing a book, “it may have been Sarah’s first encounter, up close and personal, with a deaf person who conversed with her,” says DeBrodt. Sarah still tells DeBrodt how she “reads” the book before bed or while in the car. “I know she is not literally reading the words,” DeBrodt says. “She is comforted and edified by the kinship she feels with the character.”

Many thanks to Sarah Bayliss for all her hard work putting this altogether. All together? I am turning into Donkey…she took the time to interview a lot of folks, not just me. Sarah and I had a wonderful time talking on Skype, that’s for sure. Yay, Sarah Bayliss!

If you’d like to read something political, click here. If you’d rather see a picture of a glittery manatee, click here. Maybe you’d like to check out both! Either way, remember that kindness really is the greatest virtue, especially in times like these.

(I’m thrilled to say that these three friends have earned a Junior Library Guild pin, too. That’s always a good sign, I think.)

Anyway, this is the second book in the Rabbit & Robot series. And it represents one of those nifty writing experiences that I’ve had now and then, in which I discover that I had been writing from my own life, but only after I actually finish working on the book.

A little back story: After El Deafo came out, überlibrarian Betsy Bird pointed out that the first book in the series (Rabbit & Robot: The Sleepover) seemed autobiographical to her. (She was right in some ways—I had initially modeled Rabbit on someone else, but while working on the book realized that the high-strung, anxious Rabbit is pretty darn close to me.) Betsy used her crazy-good comp-lit skills and suggested that my personal connection to the book went even further. She pointed out that while Rabbit might represent me (I’m a rabbit in El Deafo, after all), perhaps the problem-solving Robot might represent the Phonic Ear, my clunky hearing aid from elementary school. I think Betsy was right! Robot drives Rabbit crazy but ultimately helps him out; my Phonic Ear drove me crazy, but ultimately helped me out. A lot.)

So back to the new book, Rabbit and Robot and Ribbit. I was definitely more aware of modeling Rabbit after myself while writing this one. But I wasn’t thinking that hard about it. In this story, Rabbit invites himself over to Robot’s house, and is very upset to find that Robot is entertaining a new friend—a frog named Ribbit. I was only thinking about being funny when I decided that all Ribbit would say throughout the book is “ribbit.”

(Guess who doesn’t have a degree in Photography…)

Only later did I realize that even this is kind of autobiographical. You see, Robot can understand Rabbit, because he has the technology to translate every “ribbit” Ribbit says into English. Rabbit doesn’t have that technology. When Ribbit says “ribbit,” all Rabbit can hear is “ribbit.” Robot shares his translations of what Ribbit says with Rabbit (much like my hearing aids try to translate the sounds I hear into speech), but often those translations come too late for Rabbit. The frustration that Rabbit experiences from being jealous is compounded by his not being able to understand the communication between Robot and Ribbit. This book is acutely close to what my experiences of being in a group are like. Lip reading is hard work, and I often can’t keep up with more than one person at a time—and so I quickly lose the thread of many conversations, miss the joke, fake the laugh. Basically, it sounds like everyone in my life is saying “RIBBIT”! And just like Rabbit, I get jealous of the connections that people make that I sometimes am unable to make.

I like retroactively discovering that some of my books are autobiographical. Maybe I am writing what I know, and writing from experience—even when it might not seem like that’s what I’m doing at all.

I hope you’ll check out the book. Maybe you’ll think about the many interesting ways we try to communicate in this world in our efforts to connect—and why it’s so important that we do connect.

Look for this poster in Robot’s bedroom. Robot likes the Beatles! Just like me!

Check out my (longish) interview with WETA/Reading Rockets Librarian Extraordinaire, Rachael Walker (who sadly doesn’t show up in the video, otherwise it’d be called Two Talking Heads, I guess) here. (That’s a sentence for Donkey and Yam to struggle with. And I just ended that sentence with a preposition, good gravy!)

Check out this video, made by 14 students in the Bay Area of California! And here’s the sweet note that went with the video…

Hi Cece! I hope you see this message. I am a middle school special education teacher in the Bay Area of California. Every year our school has a competition called battle of the books. Students read a number of pre selected books and then choose one book, and use Animoto to make a “book trailer” film. The school then holds a screening of the films and the students vote for a viewers choice award and the English department votes on an overall winner. My classroom is made up of 14 students with many differing abilities and strengths. They made their video based on your book, El Deafo. They won the viewers choice award as well as the overall best in school award.
They now get to compete against other middle school students in the district competition. They are very big fans of you and your books. They would absolutely love if you happen to see this and watch their video. Thank you for being such an amazing inspiration!

CONGRATULATIONS to these amazing kids for winning the viewers’ choice award AND the overall best in school award!

March 8th, to be exact. The book is Chuck and Woodchuck. I got a box of ’em last week.

The crazy thing is, Tom has a book birthday on the same day, for his book Rocket and Groot: Stranded on Planet Strip Mall. We’re gonna have a book party at Imaginations Toy & Furniture Co. (1531 South Main Street in Blacksburg, VA) on that very day, March 8th, at 6:00 pm. It’s gonna be fun.

But this post is actually a big ol’ thank-you note to the amazing Kyle T. Webster.

All that stuff coming out of Kyle’s head? Created with Kyle’s own brush, BLOT BOT PERFECTO!

School Visits and Skype visits

At the moment, I am not doing school visits except for those arranged through my publishers for book tours and bookstore events.

I’ll be signing up folks for Google Hangouts visits in late October. Please check back on October 26th, 2018 for more information. My apologies for changing the date; crazy deadlines and a broken computer have made me fall behind.